The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.
With that said, I am in Ethiopia. I am in the Peace Corps and I want to keep my friends and family updated.

The Edge of the world

Exploring Ethiopia

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Mizan Teferi Area Cave/Waterfall (Big spiders!)

I’ll be brief today. I have been very busy the past couple of weeks hiking around to various caves and waterfalls, but I wanted to share an adventure to the Sheko Waterfall and Cave system I did last weekend.

My friend Ellie, Soloman, and I decided to find a beautiful cave and waterfall near to Mizan Teferi. It is a short 30 minute drive to the town Sheko to the North West. Soloman is a policeman in Mizan and thought it would be best to register with the police and to see if they knew any guides. It turned out that the local tourism office was located right next door, and we were able to hire a local guide to help us find the trail. The local guide was crucial because we had no idea the direction to walk and the first half of the trail we walked through farm land.

Fun fact: The guide was 69 years old, but could jump and run better than me.

The cave/waterfall required several hundred meter decent into a lush forest. The whole area around the cave is a protected/sacred area so there is no threat to deforestation. Unfortunately, because it is a sacred area, we could not enter the cave without a priest. We didn’t find that information out until we reached the mouth of the cave with our guide. It might have been for the best because the cave had spiders on the ceiling the size of fists. At one point Ellie jumped as one ran under her feet.

It was a gorgeous hike and the waterfall had charm. It was not one large waterfall but a cascade followed by a free-falling waterfall followed by a cascade. Down stream a bit there is actually several more cascading waterfalls into small pools. These pools are about 3 meters deep and looked perfect for a quick dip!

Like always, we were caught in a rainstorm while hiking out, but I would definitely recommend this to a friend who is traveling through the area.